Country strong: Kenny Chesney - and friends - host a bash at Gillette

Mary Whitfill The Patriot Ledger thelittlewreck

Sunday

Aug 26, 2018 at 11:05 AMAug 27, 2018 at 7:23 AM

Nobody said Kenny Chesney wasn't energetic.

Bobbing around on stage Friday night, the 50-year-old's age didn't show as he clapped, screamed and skipped from one side of the stage to the other. While his energy fed into the crowd and his band jammed to some of the biggest hits of the genre, one thing did suffer: the music.

A road-weary Chesney, who is coming off of a summer-long tour and marking his millionth Gillette ticket sold this weekend, almost outperformed himself. The last word of every verse was laborious - half due to his own excitement and half to the unnecessary running around the stage - but his energy left audiences in a feel-good state of mind. Besides, in a stadium full of super fans, everybody already knows the words.

Chesney's appearance started with an appeal to the hearts of the truest Bostonians - a video shout out from Robert Kraft, Rob Gronkowski, Tom Brady and other local heroes congratulating him on his millionth ticket sold in the stadium. The 2-minute video ended with a clip of the man of the hour thanking fans, shouting while rocking a Pats tank top and helmet with an empty Gillette Stadium as his background. Saturday was Chesney's 19th show in the Patriots' home.

The headliner started his show with a classic, "Beer in Mexico," which got No Shoes Nation - the official name for his biggest fans - in the mood for the rum-soaked beach party to come. The biggest audience reception came for his newer hits like "Somewhere With You" and "American Kids," with one notable exception.

Citing his love for all-things Boston, Chesney sang his song named for the city off his 2005 album "Be as You Are" (still his best album despite producing no singles thank-you-very-much). Predictably, the performance was the most-loved of the night. And, when he picks up an acoustic guitar and tones down the showmanship, Chesney proves there is still an abundance of talent lying beneath his perfectly-tanned skinned.

Opening act Dierks Bentley joined him on stage for a rendition of "When the Sun Goes Down," and David Lee Murphy, one of the best songwriters in the businesses, made an appearance to sing "Everything's Gonna Be Alright," "Dust on the Bottle" and "Party Crowd."

Murphy has co-written some of country music's largest singles since he first took a hiatus from recording in 2004. His self-imposed break ended this April when he released the album "No Zip Code" with Chesney earlier this year.

Other songs performed included "How Forever Feels," "Get Along," "Setting the World on Fire" and "Young," and No Shoes Nation soaked up every minute of the clean, country fun they were promised.

Before Chesney took the stage, Bentley pulled in his own crowd with a performance of just over an hour. The 42-year-old has been a staple on country radio for nearly 15 years, and you'd be hard pressed to find a country fan that can't sing along to his debut single "What Was I Thinkin'" or cult classic "Drunk on a Plane."

Bentley's performance started with "I Hold on" and threatened to be an over-scripted act when his comments seemed a little too perfectly timed with an excessive Powerpoint-like background setup, but by the end of his set Bentley had the hearts of every audience member.

His wooing of the crowed started with a three-man rendition of "Shipping up to Boston" he lead with opening act The Brother's Osbourne, continued when he pulled a fan on stage to shotgun a beer, and was cemented when he called Dan Foley, a Boston Marathon bombing survivor, out on stage.

Foley, who continues to run the marathon, was part of Bentley's music video for his song "The Mountain." After a short introduction Bentley sang "Riser" ( Hey I'm a fighter/When darkness comes to town, I'm a lighter/A get out aliver, out of the fire/Survivor).

"Dan was there the night of the bombing and he had a great story of the year it took him to get back out there," Bentley said. "That's what being a riser is all about."

Despite his laundry list of radio hits, Bentley treated the entire night like a local artist who accidentally wound up on a stadium stage. He was genuinely thrilled when the audience knew the words to their favorites like "Somewhere on a Beach" and "Burning Man," and remained gracious from start to finish.

Audiences were perfectly primed to hear from the country superstars after show-stealing performances from Brandon Lay and The Brother's Osbourne.

Though only a few hundred people had trickled in by the time Lay, whose 2017 hit "Speakers, Bleachers and Preachers" is still playing on country radio, started his performance at 5 p.m., but the newcomer stole the hearts of everyone he played for. His raw talent and star-struck demeanor was nothing short of endearing.

"We played a lot of frat parties over the past 10 or 12 years just so we could get right here," he told the audience.

Lay was followed up by Brother's Osbourne, the sibling duo behind country chart toppers like "Stay a Little Longer" and "It Ain't My Fault." T.J. and John Osbourne are a little more grit and a little more rock n' roll than Chesney with his pop-laced hits.

The Osbournes's brand of outlaw country comes from Maryland originally, proving the deep south isn't the only place capable of producing down-home hits.

"We get asked all the time 'why are we in country music' because we're from the Northeast," T.J. Osbourne said after the show. "So to come up here and to see just droves of people showing up that are big country music supporters and fans, this is why. Country music is a live and strong up here."